The present invention relates generally to detection systems and in particular to the use of a personal communication device with response in central station monitoring of security systems.
In the security alarm industry, detection devices at a premise detect various conditions at the premise. These conditions may indicate fire, burglary, medical, environmental or other conditions that may exist. The security system then transmits the information to a central response center (central station) that then coordinates the response activities of others back to the premise. However, most of the alarms transmitted are false, which results in the false dispatching of police, fire, and medical teams on a large scale. This creates numerous problems for public response agencies, endangers public safety, and increases costs to consumers and industry providers.
Various industry studies have determined that the source of these false dispatches are caused by the user of the system more than 75% of the time-user error. Much of the user error occurs when the user is actively operating their system; that is, is turning the system on or off. When turning the system on such users are generally exiting the premise and are activating the system to protect the premise in their absence. Likewise, if the user is turning the system off this generally occurs when the user is returning to the premise. As a result, much of the user errors occur when users are coming or going from their premise.
In order to mitigate the number of false dispatches, the industry standard process has been to verify the alarm by attempting to contact the alarm users by telephone at the premise before dispatching a response agency. In such an instance, if the users are arriving at the premise, there is a chance of reaching them. However, most of the time, the users are unavailable because (a) they have just exited the premisexe2x80x94(which accounts for about 50% of the occurrences) or (b) the telephone line to the premise is busyxe2x80x94(some additional percent of the occurrences). When the user is unavailable, then the emergency agency, usually a police department, is dispatched to the premise.
False alarms are such a wide scale problem that many police departments are considering a no-response policy to electronic security systems, and indeed, some police departments in major cities have already implemented such a policy. Other departments are charging for response and many cities have instituted fines for multiple false alarms. If this trend continues, security alarm systems will become more expensive (through the use of private guard response or large fines) which will reduce the number of buyers who can afford or are willing to pay the costs that might be associated with these security systems. This will significantly impact the industry in a negative way and would be unfortunate to the public because security systems do reduce risk of loss and add safety to the persons they protect; not to mention that many thieves have been captured because of these systems.
What is needed in the art is a system to reduce the number of false dispatches so that police departments do not continue to take action against the industry and the owners of security systems. The system should be easy to use and should provide a user with the ability to cancel false alarms quickly.
The present system provides notification to users of a security system of a detected alarm condition. In one embodiment, this notification is performed simultaneously or nearly simultaneously with the central station. In one embodiment, the notification is performed using a wide scale wireless system so that the users can be notified regardless of their current location.
Such a system solves many of the previously stated problems and several others not mentioned herein. In one embodiment, the user is signaled using a wireless system, so if the user is leaving the premise, and perhaps at a significant distance, the user will still be notified. In one embodiment, the system connects the users of the security system directly to the central station system so that the alarm can be immediately verified or canceled with the central station. In the embodiment where the connection is wireless, the user or users may be in any location within the range of the wireless network. If the central station receives a cancellation of the alarm they can avoid dispatching the emergency agency or perhaps recall them if the dispatch has occurred.
In one embodiment the system provides a dynamic response process that is adjusted in real time or nearly instantaneously by the users of the system. That is to say, more than half of all false alarms may be canceled and more than half of all false dispatches can probably be avoided.
In one embodiment, the system provides nearly simultaneous and wireless connection of electromechanical data from a security or other detection system, remote human intervention (usually the users of the detection system), and the response centers to provide direction to a response effort. One aspect of this design is that the users of the detection system participate in directing the response effort indicated by various alarms from a security or other detection system.
Due to cost, power requirements, and relative design sizes, one embodiment of the system incorporates Narrowband PCS systems, otherwise known as 2-Way paging. Other embodiments include, but are not limited to, PCS, cellular, cellemetry and other broad scale wireless networks. Other embodiments incorporate combinations of these networks.
This summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the embodiments of the present system and is not intended in an exclusive or exhaustive sense, and the scope of the invention is to be determined by the attached claims and their equivalents.